patch-ahead reports the single patch that is the given distance ahead of this turtle. Ahead in this context means towards the turtle’s current heading. You can think of it as the turtle looking at a patch in front of it. The syntax of this reporter is patch-ahead *insert distance here*. The distance can be an integer or a decimal number (e.g., 1, 3, 2.5, 5.5). For example:

ask patch-ahead 1 [ set pcolor green ] 

This line turns the patch 1 unit in front of this turtle green.

Note: This reporter will report nobody if the patch does not exist (i.e. if the patch is outside the given coordinates of NetLogo).